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Government's achievements to be main poll plank: Thackeray

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray today said that the decision to hold the state assembly elections simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls would be taken at the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party co-ordination committee meeting to be held on July 14 in Bombay.

Addressing a press conference Thackeray, accompanied by Chief Minister Narayan Rane and Sena youth leader Uddhav Thackeray, said various issues including a decision on constituencies for the Lok Sabha elections will be discussed at the meeting.

He said the Shiv Sena will contest 22 Lok Sabha seats, and the remaining by its alliance partner. He added that there will be interchange of constituencies between the alliance partners but there will not be any change in the number of seats either would contest.

He said that highlighting the Kargil issue in the election campaign during the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls was not wrong on the part of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. He recalled the 1971 Lok Sabha elections when Indira Gandhi had made 'Bangladesh-mukti' the main election plank.

Thackeray expressed unhappiness over the Union government's limited approach which aimed at only flushing out the Pakistani intruders and pointed out that it was time to teach the Pakistanis a lesson.

When asked about the Shiv Sena's election plank in the coming polls, he said the successful achievements of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government will be highlighted.

UNI

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